ABSTRACT
Kate, a married woman in her mid-30s sought analysis because she had developed peptic ulcers after interrupting a relationship with a former psychotherapist. The patient was the only daughter and middle child of Methodist missionaries; she was bom in the middle of a period of service her parents spent in Lebanon. After the patient went off to college, she quickly married a foreign student; she knew that she did not love him but felt a great urgency to acquire a man. By the time the analysis actually began, after a few weeks’ delay, the ulcer had become asymptomatic. Although it took much effort, over a period of years, to demonstrate that hers was essentially a delusional, “mind-over-matter” attitude, it is entirely possible that, in the specific instance of her gastric symptoms, she may in fact have been correct. The propensity for idealization was by no means an unprecedented development in Kate’s emotional life.
